Franka ROS 2 Setup at MUL

Installation

Set Up Control PC

1. install the latest Ubuntu LTS
2. either set up Ubuntu Pro real-time kernel as suggested by the Franka documentation or install the XanMod Kernel with realtime (PREEMPT_RT) patches (sudo apt install linux-xanmod-rt-x64v3 or linux-xanmod-rt-x64v2 for older systems)
3. set realtime permissions for user
4. (optional for CUDA) add the NVIDIA driver and CUDA repo (select deb (network)) and install the driver package with IGNORE_PREEMPT_RT_PRESENCE=1 sudo -E apt install cuda-drivers (you also have to use IGNORE_PREEMPT_RT_PRESENCE=1 when updating the driver, e.g. IGNORE_PREEMPT_RT_PRESENCE=1 sudo -E apt upgrade, or simply add export IGNORE_PREEMPT_RT_PRESENCE=1 to your ~/.bashrc)

Compile ROS 2 Workspace

Run the following commands to build the Franka workspace:

mkdir ~/franka_ws && cd ~/franka_ws
vcs import --recursive --input https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mul-cps/mul_franka/refs/heads/main/sources.repos
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -y --skip-keys=libfranka
colcon build
. install/setup.bash

Usage

Start Sequence

1. Power on the controller. The lights on the robot will flash yellow. Wait until the lights are solid yellow.
2. Connect to the Franka Desk Web UI (https://$ROBOT_IP).
3. Unlock the breaks. If the light turn pink, press and release the e-stop. The lights will turn blue.
4. Activate FCI. This will lock the Web UI and you can now connect to the robot via libfranka on ip $ROBOT_IP and port 1337.

Launch Files

This repo contains a couple of launch files:

1. franka.launch.py: hardware interface and controllers
2. moveit.launch.py: MoveIt 2 for motion planning
3. rviz.launch.py: visualisation of the robot state and UI for MoveIt 2

Once FCI is activated on the robot, you can use these launch files via ros2 launch:

# start hardware interface, connect to FCI, and start controllers
ros2 launch mul_franka_launch franka.launch.py robot_ip:=$ROBOT_IP
# start MoveIt 2
ros2 launch mul_franka_launch moveit.launch.py
# optionally, start RViz
ros2 launch mul_franka_launch rviz.launch.py